Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/457084
{ SOMMjournal.com } 73 A s unbelievable as it may seem, in 1963 Chardonnay acres num- bered fewer than 250 in California. The culprit? Prohibition. It had decimated the variety, even though Chardonnay had been somewhat popular since the late 19th century; the grapes were just too delicate for shipment cross-country to home winemakers. Growers replaced it with thick-skinned grapes such as Alicante Bouschet. Chardonnay essentially disappeared out- side of the Livermore, Napa and Santa Clara Valleys. Today, California grows almost 100,000 acres of Chardonnay, more than 20% of the variety's total worldwide acreage. We all know it is a favored varietal by sales volume, and there are many reasons for this; but no winery has played a more significant role in the history and resurgence of California Chardonnay than Wente Vineyards. Wente Vineyards was among the first California wineries to adopt Chardonnay. Some Wente cuttings traced back to Meursault via Livermore's Charles Wetmore and others. Carl H. Wente col- lected the rest directly from Montpellier in 1912. At Prohibition's end, Wente Vineyards and Paul Masson were the only wineries with existing commercial Chardonnay vineyards. Wente Vineyards continued managing their vines for steady improvement, culling and propagating for optimum quality. They, in turn, became the source for clonal research and development conducted by U. C. Davis and Louis Martini Jr. in Carneros. After World War II, A. J. Winkler and Maynard Amerine of U. C. Davis published their heat summation zone research and identified the cool Region I areas as being ideal for Chardonnay. But producers didn't act. They had lost interest in the grape. Third-generation wine- grower Karl L. Wente was the first to step up, looking to supplement his Livermore plantings with a cool-climate vineyard. "In 1963, my grandfather [Karl L. Wente] was driving with Winkler and Amerine and saw a cut in the hillside down in Arroyo Seco," Karl D. Wente, fifth-generation winemaker, tells The SOMM Journal. "He was able to get an immediate sense of the soils, the water quality and its availability in the Arroyo Seco basin. And there were those short days, cool nights and fog that comes in and doesn't blow off until ten o'clockish." Wente Vineyards purchased 350 acres there from the Riva family. They planted Riesling and two clones of Chardonnay: Clone 2A (the "Old Wente Clone") and Clone 4 (the U. C. Davis heat-treated Wente clone). Virus-free vines on AxR 1 were sourced from U. C. Davis's FPS nursery. Those healthy vines—and the fact that no vines had existed in Arroyo Seco since the Mission period and that the area is little-traveled—have allowed Wente's Riva Ranch vineyard to remain nearly phylloxera-free. Over the years, Wente Vineyards bought additional, contiguous land. They planted more Chardonnay clones and designated a large "increase" block. That block was a source of cuttings for Wente's own use and also provided millions of cuttings to other California growers. Now, roughly 80% of all California Chardonnay is either a Wente clone or a derivative clone. BY FRED SWAN, AIWS, CS, CWAS, CSW The Wente Vineyards 2012 Riva Ranch Pinot Noir (SRP $30) is Wente's first Riva Ranch–designated Pinot, and it's an excellent debut. Pretty aromas and flavors feature lightly tart red cherry, cranberry, toasted spice and the slightest touch of sweet herb. The palate is medium- bodied and gently fresh with moderate, very finely grained tannins and finishes with tangy fruit, understated oak and deftly balanced tannins and fruit viscosity. —F. S. THE DEBUT OF WENTE VINEYARDS RIVA RANCH PINOT NOIR Fifth Generation Winemaker Karl D. Wente in the Riva Ranch vineyard. THE DEBUT OF WENTE VINEYARDS RIVA RANCH PINOT NOIR